The Basketball Love Story of Choc’Lit and Max

By John Morris Wright

This is a semi-fiction, true fantasy of the saga of two basketball players, a boy and a girl named Shelton and Maxwell. The book is based on the visual exploits of a fantastic player called Chuckie, whom I had the pleasure of watching play for five years. He was placed on the varsity squad in the eighth grade because of his ability to jump and shoot. I don’t remember if he was first string in the eighth grade or not. Chuckie is actually Choc in the book.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Dec 18, 2018
• ISBN: 9781984569943

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Copyright © 2019 by John Morris Wright.

ISBN:                Softcover                    978-1-9845-6995-0

                          eBook                          978-1-9845-6994-3

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 12/17/2018

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Contents

Preface

Acknowledgements

The Freshman Year

The Playoffs

Next: The State Championship games.

The Sophomore year

The State Championships

PREFACE

This is a Semi-fiction TRUE fantasy of the saga of two basketball players, a boy and girl named Shelton and Maxwell. The book is based on the visual exploits of a fantastic player called Chuckie that I had the pleasure of watching play for five years. He was placed on the varsity squad in the eighth grade because of his ability to jump and shoot. I don’t remember if he was first string in the eighth grade or not. Chuckie is actually Choc in the book.

Max is actually, the name of a Siamese fighting fish that I gave to my grandson Braylon. Max is the fictitious name I gave in this book, to one of my granddaughters. When she was in eighth grade and was 5'9 tall, or taller. She moved to Atlanta after the school year started and due to her height, she was asked to play on the middle school basketball team. Her role in this book is projected fiction, and hoped for reality when she reaches high school. I also gave her a fish that she named Oscar. Well, Oscar belongs to her and to her seven siblings. She is the caretaker. Oscar Street is given as the street where Max was born.

Another main character is ‘Dru’ who is Andrew, who came along a few years after Chuckie at the same high school where I was a Strings teacher. I did not notice his phenomenal abilities until he was a Junior in high school. His basketball coach told me that he was better at football than basketball. I thought that was impossible until I saw some film footage of his football prowess. It’s a tie. He was a four—year starting wide receiver for a college in Ohio. He is just a natural, extremely gifted athlete.

Since Chuckie and Andrew were not on the team at the same times, I took the liberty of putting them on the team at the same time; sort of a Dream Team fantasy novel. Due to some of the premises and politics touched upon in this book, Chuckie’s and Andrew’s team, when they were Seniors, thanks to some bad calls at crucial points in critical games, did not play for the state championship. Being a small school did not help their case. No one in power knew or cared that the state was missing a treat. This book is an attempt to right that wrong, at least in fantasy.

The other characters are intertwined names and creative spellings of some of my relatives and close friends who played ball with me as I was growing up. Coach Pelzer is my mother’s youngest brother. He had a string of championship basketball teams in the 1950’s, when I was a youngster. Sandy is the name of his Center during those years. Watching his players made me know that I had to play on a team when I got to high school. Unfortunately, I was much more gifted in music and my best sport turned out to be baseball, my third favorite sport. We did not have a baseball team when I was in high school. I managed to make the basketball, football and track teams but was never one of the stars.

Incidentally, I was given the animal nickname of Turkey by my 6th grade teacher, uncle Pelzer. I was given this name because four of us in his class were close friends. They already had animal nicknames. Chicken was John Allen Bradley; Duck was Reginald Jenkins; and Bo Hog is Joseph Wright, whose nickname was shortened to Bo. Bo is the only one still living and he still calls me Turk after more than 62 years. {Sadly, Bo expired on August 18, 2016, one day before his 74th birthday.} Turk has a small part in the book. Although he is 7 inches taller and minus many of the pounds that I carry presently. I have since lost at least 54 of those pounds.

I watch basketball, football and track, but I am in love with the degree of poetry and the art within Basketball, when it is permitted to be played in the spirit of the game. Each year the players seem to get better and more athletic. It is a wonderful game when the politics and prejudice are left out of it. Also, one of my pet peeves about my second favorite sport is that the rules have evolved to sometimes penalize players for trying, such as diving to catch a ball, but when he inevitably hits the ground, maybe even breaking his arm, and the ball then comes out, it is ruled a non-catch. My sorest point is when a player catches a ball in bounds and takes two or more steps before going out of bounds, or even into the end-zone, the officials can choose to say that he didn’t have full control, even when the ball never touched the ground, it is ruled a non-catch. C’mon man. In addition, it’s sad when rules are inserted where there is no clear definition, such as making a football move. I guess the player was playing chess on the football field. I stopped watching this sport for two and a half years when from my perspective, rules were inserted that enabled the officials, rather than the players, to determine the outcome of the game. I returned because, even with the imperfections that keep the game from being totally enjoyable, it is still an interesting game to watch. I was also very good at it but not particularly fond of playing defense even though I sometimes forgot the plays when playing offense. I didn’t like it, but I started on defense.

With the exception of the fantasy girls team, the on the court events in this book actually happened. They just didn’t happen in the same sequence, and with the same players on the court at the same time as is presented in this book. Off the court scenarios are mostly fantasy. The incidence of the ball going into the basket, hitting the nets, and then coming back out, was at a different school not associated with these characters. Some other incidents actually happened with my Uncle Pelzer’s team, Roberts High, 50 or more years before Andrew and Chuckie came along. They make good reading. I left Roberts after the seventh grade. Roberts is now Lake Marion High.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This book is dedicated to my cousin, classmate and friend who was like a big brother to me, Joseph Bo Wright. He was a fantastic basketball player and all-around athlete. He was the first basketball player that I know, who made the varsity team while in the eighth grade.

R.I.P. Bo!

Turk

Also, in memory of my cousin John E. (Brother/The Fox) Brunson, a basketball coach, athletic director and keeper of the clock for high schools in South Carolina and the local state college in our adopted hometown of Orangeburg, SC {We were born in Holly Hill, SC}. I was in the process of trying to catch him to consult him about some technicalities of the game just before he took sick for an agonizing six months when God in his mercy, took him home.

I would like to thank my nephew, Harry Bear Townsend a former coach and basketball Nut like I am, of whom I was sometimes reaching for some consultations after the demise of my cousin John.

Also, my cousin Dr. James Chris Robinson, a fantastic basketball player (whom I had to guard in practices in high school), and all-around athlete and scholar, who in his seventies is still officiating basketball and volleyball games. He has the distinction of being one of two surviving members of the team from our high school, Wilkinson High, which won the state championship in 1962, the year after I graduated. I sometimes was capable of reaching him long enough to consult him on points of which I was unsure in this book.

Lastly, and most importantly, my wife, Barbara Miller Wright has supported me in any and every endeavor. She, having an office specialist degree, checked and corrected my ‘two finger’ typing punctuations after the entire work was completed. I was unsure about them, and also, made many mistakes during the process of composing this work. In the process, she also discovered and corrected numerous small mistakes that I overlooked. These were things that I had reread and still missed because I was reading what I meant but not what I wrote.

I would be highly remiss if I did not give direct credit to the one person other than God that handed me the talent to do this type of composition, Mrs. Madeline Swett Wright.

She was my first teacher. She taught my older sister Jackie and me to read when we each reached the age of four. She was a natural teacher, and her youngest brother Pelzer often said, Madeline could teach the bark off of a tree. She was a published poet and I firmly know that she passed a variation of that talent on to me that I have utilized to write lyrics to my songs as well as the tongue twister, alliterations and other quirky writings in this book.

Thank You Mom

The Freshman Year

Maxwell Reigns was born January 23, on 262 Oscar Street. A year and a half later, on July 23, Shelton White was born across the street a few doors down. Shelton got his nickname of ‘Choc’lit when Max was two years old, and she was visiting his house. His family was out of milk, among other necessities, and he was hungry. He began crying uncontrollably. His parents went into the other room to get away from the crying for a while. Max was disturbed because of his crying and she asked his parents, Why is he crying? They just said, Oh, he’ll get over it. Max went back to Shelton’s room. She almost cried also. She had a piece of Chocolate with her that her uncle Bubba gave her before she left her house. (Uncle Bubba always kept candy and chewing gum in his pocket for the kids.) Max was always asking him, What’cha got in your pocket? She broke off a small piece and put it on his lip. It rolled on his tongue and almost choked him. He started coughing but almost immediately he got it in the right place and started smacking his lips. He then started looking around for more. She broke off a bigger piece and put it to his lips. He took his time this time, as if to make sure the pleasant feeling would last longer. When he finished the second piece, he started opening and closing his hand as if to say, I want more. Max did not have much left but she put the remainder in his hand. He closed his hand around it, which caused it to begin melting. He put his hand to his mouth and slowly began cooing, while taking his time slowly licking and savoring the chocolate. Max was ecstatic! He likes chocolate, he likes chocolate, His name is Choc’lit, She exclaimed. Shelton went to sleep.

Max’s Uncle Bubba bought her a basketball when she turned six. She did not have a goal at which to shoot but she would bounce that ball until her parents would tell her to go outside and play. She would go over to Choc’lit’s house but his mom would tell her the same thing. Go outside with that ball. Choc’lit would go with her. They would play with that ball for hours. They would dribble and try to keep the ball away from each other. Now Max was taller and when Choc’lit got adept at taking the ball away from her, she would hold the ball over her head. As time went by Choc’lit could easily take the ball away by jumping. Max learned to time Shelton’s jump so she could jump at the same time as he did. Choc’lit got better at jumping higher, so this tactic didn’t work long.

When Max was eight, she got sick. She developed Bronchial Pneumonia, got the Mumps, Measles and Chickenpox, all within a period from October to March. When she went back to school, it was not long before she developed Scarlet fever. She misses practically the entire school year. She eventually wound up in the same grade as Shelton.

Choc’lit & max became inseparable. They played basketball, baseball and even football together. Sometimes the other boys would take it easy on Max because she is a girl. Max was a tomboy. They quickly learned that she was as rough and tumble as they were. One day, one of the older boys, Peas tackled Choc’lit so hard that Choc’lit’s nose bled. Max was all over Peas. She pummeled him with her fists so hard and fast that he did not have a chance to fight back. Some of the kids started saying (behind her back) that she loved Choc as they started calling him. Other kids said, No, she does not even like boys. She is always with boys. She never plays with the girls.

As they grew older, society tried to separate the boys from the girls. The school teams and little league teams would not permit the boys and girls to play together. Max & Choc’ could only play together at recess or after school. Max’s skills with a basketball became very noticeable so whatever team she was on would almost always win. In pickup games, the boys would always pick her first. Whenever she and Choc were on the same team, they never lost. Choc was not that tall but he could easily out jump the other boys. He had also developed into an expert dribbler. Even guys on the high school team could not take away the ball from him.

When they got to eighth grade, some of the other boys started calling him Shock. This was because when the rival schools would play Robert Holly, his school, they would leave in shock and awe at how quick was he, and because of how high he was able to jump. Another reason is because the other schools thought his teammates were calling him Shock.

By the time Choc’lit and Max were in high school, the high school coaches had heard about both of them. They were thinking of putting them on the Jay Vee teams but changed their minds after seeing them play. They were the only freshmen on the varsity basketball teams.

Now Choc was only 5 feet 9 inches tall. He could jump high enough to get all of his wrist above the rim but could not dunk the ball because he could not palm the ball. This worried him, because he wanted to be able to dunk like the much taller boys. He learned that if he jumped and extended one side of his body, he could reach higher than when he went straight up with both sides even. He would go home and practice jumping. Pretty soon, he was able to jump higher above the rim, but still could not palm the ball, so he started dunking with both hands holding the ball. Coach Pelzer told him You are up high enough and long enough to ‘cuff’ the ball with one hand. Cuff it while you are going up, then dunk it. Choc’lit tried that. The first time he actually missed the shot. The ball bounced up and went over the backboard. After that he knew that he had to make sure that he put the ball in the right spot and un-cuff the ball from his wrist.

Choc was the shortest boy on the team. Conversely, Max, even as a freshman, was the tallest on the girls team. Max was already 6 feet 1 & 1/2 inches. Tall for a girl, and she was still growing. Being tall should have meant that it would be easier for other girls to steal the ball from her, but her days of dribbling with Choc and playing with the boys had taught her to not dribble the ball too high. She used her height and long arms to her best advantage by being able to vary her rhythm and change the direction of the ball in an instant. She could dribble the ball far out to her right or left, go around the person in the opposite direction and continue her dribble. Sometimes she looked like a Giraffe, a beautiful, graceful Giraffe.

The boys’ varsity team consisted of only 11 players. Robert Holly was not a large school so there was not a large pool of talent from which to choose, and the school had to stretch the talent among the Jr. Varsity and the Varsity teams. In a way this was good, because it increased a player’s chances of making a team, as well as of getting a chance to play. Sandy San Saunders was the tallest at 6 feet 9 inches. He would not weigh 200 pounds if you soaked him in his clothes with a fire hydrant, then tarred and feathered him. The others ranged from 6 foot 1 inch to 6 foot 3 inches. The actual leader of the boys varsity is Beau Bradley. At 6'1 he would have been the shortest if Choc had not made the varsity squad.

Before the season started, coach Pelzer taught and drilled them on only 7 plays. Choc had trouble remembering the plays because he always saw something different after the play began. Sometimes this was good, but coach Pelzer wanted the players to learn the plays correctly before the season started. Coach Pelzer would require any player who deviated from the designed play to run a lap. If you made a second mistake on the same play, you had to run 2 laps. If you made 5 mistakes, you ran 5 laps and then sat down for about 5 minutes. Needless to say, Choc was in excellent shape. He averaged more than 25 laps a day.

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When the season began, the first game was against the Bow-Branch Wolverines, a very good team and one of their arch rivals. Bow-Branch had four starters who were all 6'5 and taller. The other starter was 6'2. This school had won many state championships over the years and they were always in the playoffs. They had a good coach and there was a rumor that the town fertilized their water because every year they always seemed to have the tallest boys.

Bow-Branch won the tip-off even though their tallest guy was only 6'7. They quickly went to an 11-2 lead before coach Pelzer called timeout. Robert Holly had been trying to get the ball in to Sandy but sometimes it was stolen and when they got it to him, two players would guard him. Sandy would throw it out to one of his teammates that was left unguarded but the players would miss the long range shot or try to dribble in for a layup but Bow-Branch always blocked it. Coach Pelzer told them to fake throwing to Sandy to see if any man was going to leave his man to help guard Sandy. Then they were to throw the ball to the open man for a long shot. The players said, But we are missing our long shots. Coach Pelzer said, The basket is still the same size from 2 feet as it is from 20 feet, just keep trying; they are too tall for us to just rely on layups. With renewed confidence they went back out and sure enough their long shots began to fall. Before the quarter ended, Robert Holly had gone ahead 16 to 15. With 57 seconds left in the quarter, coach Palmer called time out and told his squad to play strict half court, Man to man." When the quarter ended the score was 20—20.

Now Choc had not yet played. Bow-Branch went ahead again 30 to 23. Coach Pelzer inserted Choc. Bow-Branch was playing full court press. They kept stealing the ball from Beau when he tried to pass. Coach Pelzer told them to let Beau, Taliferro Andrews (Nicknamed Dru because no one felt comfortable saying Taliferro), and Choc assist each other in bringing the ball up court. This caused them to stand around waiting for the ball and Bow-Branch, because of the congestion, stole the ball every time. One time when Choc passed the ball in to Beau, one of Bow-Branch’s boys stole it and went for a layup. Bad mistake! When he released the ball, Choc went up and swatted the ball back to Beau. Beau dribbled down court unguarded. As he went toward the basket, Morris (Moe) went away from the basket and his man left him to stop Beau. Beau whipped the ball in the corner to Moe and Moe made a long arching shot that dropped straight through the net. By the time the quarter ended, the score was BB (Bowman-Branch) 49, RH (Robert Holly) 30.

During the halftime Coach Pelzer told his squad, Since they are stealing the ball before we can get it across the half court line, I am going to try having Choc bring the ball down by himself. Also, we are going to give them a taste of their own medicine. We will press them full court. (Actually, this is exactly what uncle Bubba had been yelling from two tiers up behind the team.)

During these years, the teams would Jump ball at the beginning of each half. Sandy was out jumped again even though he was 2 inches taller than Bow-Branch’s center. Bow-Branch scored on a layup. Beau passed the ball in to Choc. Choc dribbled coast to coast, weaving in and out of players and finally dunked the ball. When BB tried to inbound the ball, Choc stole it and dunked it again. The next time they faked a throw and Choc’s man raced down the floor and they tried a long high pass to him since he was a full 6 inches taller than Choc. The ball was thrown higher than the rim. Choc leaped high and brought the ball down. His opponent caught him and wrapped his arms around him out of frustration. This gave BB 7 fouls. The ‘ref’ called foul and said, 1 & 1. This meant that if Choc made the 1st free throw, he would get another free throw. Choc was confident that he would make both shots. He would practice at least 50 free throws a day. He would make at least 45 of 50. He missed! He was shocked.

BB got the rebound and set up their offense. BB called a play that resulted in a layup but as the ball was going toward the basket, out of nowhere Choc tapped the ball against the backboard and Morris got the rebound and passed the ball down court to Chaz who laid it in the basket. By the time the quarter ended, Robert Holly was only down 49 to 53. RH had held them to only 4 points for that quarter.

Coach Palmer told his guys to abandon the full court press. Choc had almost single handedly dismantled it. They went into a 2-1-2 zone. Choc penetrated the zone and when they converged on him he would pass the ball to whomever was open. Their shots were falling. Chuck was called the Rifleman because he was deadly from outside if he was left unguarded, so Choc would try to draw Chuck’s man to him. Pretty soon RH was ahead by 7 points. With 4 minutes left, coach Palmer called time and told his guys to go back to ‘Man to man’ but only when R H crossed half court. He did not want to give Choc that much freedom to roam the whole court when his defense was not yet setup. RH tried to take time off the clock to protect their lead by dribbling and passing. Well, they were not scoring points. Before they knew it, BB had tied the score with 44 seconds left. Beau passed the ball in to Choc. Since BB was not pressing, Choc gave the ball back to the upperclassman. He did not want the ball in his hands with the game so close to ending. When Beau crossed half court, BB began pressing. Beau passed the ball on a high but risky pass to Choc. Choc was not going to let that ball go out of bounds. He leapt high and came down close to the baseline slightly off balance. Quickly he got his balance and dribbled back toward the half court line to get a better idea of where everyone was on the floor. He dribbled around to the right side of the court. He saw Sandy going toward the basket from the right side mainly to give Choc more room on that side. Beau’s man left Beau out near half court to help flank Choc. Instead of throwing the ball back to Beau, Choc went up in the air but both opponents jumped with their hands up so as to block any shot attempt. Choc brought the ball down behind his back and whipped it toward the goal. Sandy caught it in one hand as he was going up, put it in both hands and slammed it down through the hoop. There were 25 seconds still on the clock. Coach Palmer called time. He set up a play designed to get a layup and maybe also a foul that could win the game. Meanwhile Coach Pelzer had told his boys to not attempt to block any shot. He told them to just let them hit or miss, but be sure to box out and get the rebound if they missed. Sure enough, with 12 seconds left, the play unfolded and one of BB’s big men drove to the basket for a layup. RH’s men were in position. No one moved or jumped. The BB player was so sure his shot was going to be contested that he lost concentration and missed. Sandy got the rebound and passed it to Johndre, the Senior. Johndre brought it across the half court line. He called for time out. (Bad Senior Moment) He forgot they were out of timeouts. The refs gave back the ball to BB with 3 seconds left. Choc’s man was to inbound the ball. He placed it above his head and attempted to make a high pass to their center who was running toward the basket. The only problem was that when he released the ball toward the basket, Choc knew he was going to try to pass it toward